Training Days 20 & 21: Au Naturale

So many awesome yogic/runnery things have happened over the weekend. Saturday I ran 10 miles. Starting at my apartment, up Crescent Heights, past 3rd, Beverly, Melrose, and Sunset. Right on Hollywood Blvd, left up along the hiker paths to the top where Runyon Canyon hits Mullholand Drive, then turned down Nichols Canyon and wound down the hill again beside a babbling bumbling brook and these pretty little cottages with flowering trees. Then on the last couple miles I was getting quite tired. My limbs were feeling heavy. It was starting to drizzle. All I could think about was how good a hot bath would feel on my aching joints and muscles. Probably more amazing than a hot bath had ever felt before.

Finally through sheets of rain I made it back to my apartment where I did some forward bends and various other yoga stretches in the bathtub and curled up in bed for 3 hours. This run was the first time where I wondered if I'm really able to run this marathon. That was 10 miles. We're talking about 26. But then, I did have a couple glasses of wine the night before. Probably not the best idea. After my 3 hours in fetal position I went to my friend Carrie's and she took the above photo of me on my way into headstand (sirsasana) on her roof.

Then today I needed to run 3 miles and I was feeling really sluggish and not confident about my form so I plodded on down to the La Cienega Park and plodded around the track a few times. Someone was jogging right behind me and her change (or keys?) were jingling in the most annoying way so I had to change directions. Overall I was just feeling really down on myself so I decided to take my shoes off. In the ChiRunning technique they recommend running a bit with bare feet. Apparently your body naturally finds perfect ChiRunning alignment with no cushy shoes to cushion your feet so it's a good exercise to try.

So I asked a little older guy and his big football linebacker type trainer if they could keep an eye on my shoes and I took a lap in bare feet and get this - it was AMAZING! The soft dirt felt absolutely delicious under my feet and I knew exactly how to run. I landed perfectly evenly on each foot. It made me think about the arch of the foot and how in yoga we are supposed to balance ourself perfectly above the dome of the foot, not down through a bone in the heel or the balls of the toes. We are supposed to use the perfect suspension of the arch to hold us up. I was so enthused that I took an extra lap and then came back to put on my shoes.

At this point the football player trainer guy began to frown at me because he has extensive education and experience in sports and training and he thinks running barefoot is bad for the joints. "But have you heard about ChiRunning?" I asked. To which he started laughing. "What're you talking about?" he said "I'm a yoga teacher, I'm into this stuff" I said, and told him that barefoot running helps train the body to land correctly on the foot. To which he told me he has tight hips (when you say you're a yoga teacher people always tell you where they are tight). So we wound up down on the ground doing pigeon pose (eka pada rajakapotanasana) to open his hips. He (obviously) didn't have a yoga blanket so we used one of his medicine balls to support the hip of the front leg. I helped him get his back leg extended, tent his fingers, and lift his heart through his upper arms. He totally understood all the direction and had beautiful alignment, which we were both excited about. He loved the eka pada rajakapotanasana prep! Then we did baddha konasana and matsyandrasana (he felt this got into his glutious minimus really well). So so so fun. I love seeing new people find yoga. I ran home with much more spring in my heart.